Assign collections to your students

The
Learning Lab empowers educators to impart their discoveries and ideas with experts, peers, students, and learners of all ages, facilitating knowledge sharing across the country and sparking innovation throughout the education community.

You'll have the ability to participate in and nurture educator collaboration by sharing your collections for others to reuse or adapt, as well as invite students in to experience Smithsonian-infused learning opportunities that were previously unattainable for many of them. Additionally, Smithsonian experts and invitational creators from national professional organizations will be part of the
Learning Lab, offering their collections and insights on a wide-range of curriculum topics and real-world issues for all educators and learners.

Share: The Share icon is available throughout the Learning Lab Look for it when the excitement of discovery and creativity grabs you and you want to pass it on to colleagues, or you want to foster ah-ha learning moments for your students.

1. How to Share

You can share resources and collections from the Learning Lab through social media networks, email, and the web. When viewing a resource or a collection, click the Share icon to see your sharing options. You can share via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr, and email. Click on the channel you wish to use and a new browser window or tab will open the social network populated with text, image and link for easy posting. You can also click Copy Link to paste it in a document, share in a mobile text, post to an online community, or use any other communication channel you wish.

2. Unlisted vs. Public Sharing of Collections

All collections created are private by default. You are the only one who can view your collections until you publish them. By making your collection public, you enable others to find, view, and use it. Other users can also copy your collection and then modify it to fit their needs or to add new ideas. They cannot make changes to your original collection.

Even unpublished collections can be shared in all the ways above with your colleagues and students. But remember, once they have the link to your collection, they can access and use it just as if it were published.

3. Publish a Collection

To make your collections public and available to others, click on the Rocket icon when you are viewing your collection.

Red rocket = indicates a private/unpublished collection

Green rocket = indicates public and discoverable collection

Once a collection has been published, it is can be continually modified and edited. Just click the Edit icon to make changes, and once you Save them, your original published collection will be updated. A published collection can also be unpublished by clicking the green rocket; however, if other users have already made a copy of your public collection, they will still have access to adapt and use it as they desire.

4. Create a Roster

Click on the sunburst logo to access Rosters under My Learning Lab. Click the + (plus sign) icon in the upper right hand corner to create a new roster. Fill in the roster name and details. Then, select the level of access for joining the roster: open to all, closed to all, users with a password, users who ask to join, or users with a password or who ask to join. If you select an option for a password, create one in the box below. Provide the access requirements, such as password or request, to your students. Once students have signed up in the Learning Lab to create their account, they can access their assignments.

5. Create an Assignment

When viewing a collection, click the Assignments icon to open a dialog box to create your assignment. Enter the name of the assignment, due date and the class roster you are assigning it to, and click Create Assignment. Once it is saved and you are viewing the assignment, you can click the Edit icon in the upper right hand corner to add instructions and more details. A special URL is created for each assignment.

6. Manage a Roster

Click on the sunburst logo to access Rosters under My Learning Lab. From this page, you can manage all your class rosters. Click on a roster to open and view the details, including current and past assignments for that roster and list of the students on it. To modify the roster, click the Edit icon in the upper right hand corner.

7. Manage Assignments

Click on the sunburst logo to access Assignments under My Learning Lab. You can manage all your assignments –assigned by you and to you – and student progress from this page. Click on any assignment to see the details of the learning activity, the list of students it's assigned to, and their status toward completion.